


Sword Art Online: Hollow Remnants

by scottycj



Category: RWBY, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Rating May Change, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24720199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scottycj/pseuds/scottycj
Summary: Heathcliff has been defeated and Kirito has saved everyone from the shackles of SAO. Or has he? Even when Heathcliff disappeared, the players couldn't log out from the game, and were confused as a result. What's more, the Cardinal System itself was acting up, corrupting item and skill data for various players, and the door to Floor 76 was open, waiting for the Assault Team to pass through. Thinking that they will be able to log out when they proceed through the door, the Assault Team climbs up into the next floor. But instead of Floor 76, the Assault Team is sent to another world inside the game, where creatures of darkness roam, technology and modern equipment exists, children are trained to protect humans from said darkness, and an evil immortal Dark Queen is hellbent on snuffing out any hope these surprisingly sentient human AIs have for the future. How will the SAO Survivors fare in a world of bloody evolution?
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito & Team RWBY, Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long
Kudos: 12





	1. Games and Pawns

**_????????_ **

**_???????? - November 7th, 2024 3:37 PM_**

**_It has been exactly two years since SAO actually started. Two years since FullDive technology had been announced to make its way into mainstream gaming markets all over the world. Two years since 100,000 prospective Japanese gamers logged into the world of the Floating Castle Aincrad to explore their new boundaries that had been set for them. Two years… since Kayaba Akihiko made that fateful announcement that took all of that and twisted it into a sick death game, forcing all 100,000 players to climb the castle of Aincrad to break free of its shackles._ **

**_More than 40,000 lives were lost since then. The Assault Team, an elite group of the highest-level players in the game, had been pushing onward through the first 75 floors of Aincrad so that none of the other players could burden themselves with the task of breaking themselves out of the game._ **

**_The latest floor, Floor 75, had wiped out nearly everyone of the nearly 500 strong group that had fought on the front lines up until now. They had thought that by defeating Heathcliff and progressing to Floor 76, they would be able to log themselves out of the game. Little do they know how wrong they will turn out to be._**

“So… this is the 76th Floor…” Klein said in low spirits. “I thought maybe once we’d climbed the stairs from the 75th Floor, we’d be able to log out. Man, I got my hopes up too much…”

The area they had stepped into was a huge and lush forest that you could swear was painted red by how bright it looked, apparently the map on the players’ HUD identified it as “Forever Fall Forest”, whatever the hell that was.

“Huh? What the hell?” Klein said, confused, as he looked at what looked like moon runes on his menu.

“What’s wrong, Klein?” Kirito asked him.

“The names of my items! All the writing’s jumbled up. I can’t read it anymore! What’s going on?!”

Kirito then swiped his left index finger down to pull up the menu, and navigated to his inventory screen, and saw the same moon runes that Klein had.

“The same thing happened to me too. The names of the items are all messed up…” Kirito replied.

“Kirito-kun! It’s not just the names of the items that have gone weird!” Asuna then said to him.

“GODDAMNIT!” Klein bursted out.“MY SKILL DATA?! After I spent all of those hours training and polishing myself up?!” 

“Hang on…” Kirito said. He shouted as he activated the One-Handed Skill Horizontal Arc on a nearby tree, slicing it in half, causing the upper half to topple over.

“Some skills are still there, but it looks like I’ve lost a couple other ones too,” Kirito stated. _At least I still have all of my Dual Blades skills in my skill set._

“A few of my skills disappeared, but it looks like my level is still fine,” Asuna said.

“OI!” Agil approached nearby with some other Front Liners. “We’ve got problems over here too! It seems like teleport crystals have started to act really strange…”

“Go on, Agil,” Kirito then signaled him to continue.

“It looks like we can’t teleport to the lower floors anymore for whatever reason,” Agil continued.

“What are we gonna do?” Asuna then said.

“Everyone!” Kirito then yelled. “Listen to me! There’s no point in just waiting around here. The game system’s unstable, and we can’t go back to the lower floors. I think we should try to make as much progress as we can before another fatal system error occurs and we suffer for it.”

“You’re right,” Asuna then commented. “After all, our goal is to clear SAO by any means necessary so we can get back to the real world.”

“Everyone! Let’s go and clear this game once and for all!” Asuna then stated.

“Y-Yeah!” One person yelled.

“We can do this!” Another person yelled.

“We started out on the first floor, and look how far we’ve come! We can finish this! I know we can!” Another person cheered.

“The Assault Team’s goal is to clear this game!” Kirito then said to the Assault Team.

“ ** _YEAH!_** ” The Assault Team then cheered.

“Let’s push on… to the 100th Floor!”

“ ** _YEEEEEEAH! WOOO!_** ” They cheered again.

“The nearest town to the entrance is called ‘Vale’. Hopefully we can hunker down somewhere in the outskirts and start sending out people to find the dungeon.” Kirito then said to Klein, Asuna, and Agil.

“We should probably head there then. I believe that we can find a way to get to Floor 100 someday.” Asuna said to Kirito.

“I believe so too, Asuna. Everyone! We move onward to the Kingdom of Vale!”

“ ** _ALRIGHT!_** ” They replied with enthusiasm.

Then they started making their way south of the forest, as their local map pointed out. It looked as if there was a river that was marked on there that they were heading to, so that they could follow it to wherever this “Kingdom of Vale” was, and maybe they could set up camp somewhere or find an inn or cave to hunker down in.

They had been walking for about a couple hours, following the river, when they had found themselves in another forest altogether when the trees began growing normal leaves rather than the red leaves in Forever Fall, their HUD identifying their current location as the “Emerald Forest”.

“Maaaaaaaaaan, this walking’s gonna kill me,” Klein complained.

“You can’t feel fatigue in SAO, Klein,” Kirito deadpanned.

“It still feels like I’m gonna collapse or somethin’ man.”

Kirito then stopped in his tracks, causing the Assault Team that had gathered around him to pause as well in their tracks.

“Hmmm… Now that I think about it… Doesn’t it feel a little bit - I don’t know - strange how smoothly this is going?” Kirito then asked everybody gathered around him.

“Considering how Floor 75 went?”

Kirito could hear a couple people from within his surrounding group that had agreed with him on that notion. Indeed, it had been strange that they had been navigating that entire forest with little to no resistance whatsoever. It felt almost eerie. How they hadn’t noticed beforehand was beyond them.

“Maybe there’s some sort of trap waiting for us?” Asuna suggested to Kirito.

“That’s definitely a possibility. A zone where you couldn’t use crystals was way more common than it should have been on the lower floors,” Kirito lamented, remembering the Moonlit Black Cats and their deaths. _Especially_ Sachi’s.

_No, I mustn’t think about that right now._

“Could there be the possibility of a Quest Campaign somewhere on this Floor that’s waiting to reveal itself?” Agil suggested to Kirito.

“Possibly. I haven’t really seen anything of the sort since the first 10 Floors, and it would be idiotic if Kayaba didn’t implement SOMETHING outside of that Elves campaign,” Kirito said to him.

“The problem is… I don’t know which one it is. EH-”

Kirito’s heart froze. No. His entire body froze. He could feel malicious intent nearby with his Hypersense. They were in a clearing in the forest where monsters could be laying in the trees out of sight.

“What’s wrong, Kirito-kun?” Asuna asked with a concerned face.

“Draw your weapons everyone! There’s some monsters that are hunting us,” Kirito then addressed the Assault Team as he pulled out Elucidator and Dark Repulser from their sheaths on his back.

Everyone did as Kirito told, probably because they thought of Kirito as the new Assault Team leader now that Heathcliff was out of the picture.

“M-monsters?! Where?!” A couple of people cried out.

“They could be surrounding us! Make a circle formation, facing outward!” Kirito commanded the group with him.

“ ** _RIGHT!_** ” The Assault Team replied, weapons at the ready.

Kirito himself brought his dual swords up in a Cross Block position, facing the trees surrounding the group. _Come on, you freaks._ _Show yourselves._

* * *

**_???????? - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_???????? - November 7th, 2024 7:55 PM_**

Ozpin looked on at his monitor, at the group of about 50-ish soldiers in medieval armor as they made a circle formation near the area where the students had to go in Initiation to pick up those stupid “relic” chess pieces, as he held his coffee mug (which actually had hot chocolate in it instead) and took a sip from it. 

“What should we do, Professor?” Glynda Goodwitch spoke to him. Glynda was a very stern woman, always a stickler for rules and protocol. Oz could tell she was not pleased with what seemed to her to be a breach of school grounds. He could tell a lot of things about her thanks to the amount of time she’s spent as his right-hand. They would most certainly be dead if he were to send Goodwitch to deal with their soldier problem. Especially that young boy in the trenchcoat who is wielding two LONGSWORDS at the same time. Ozpin’s interest in the group was concentrated the most on said raven-haired boy, as it appeared that he was actually commanding the group he was in with utmost efficiency, as if it had been second nature to the boy to act in such a way. And even from the monitors, from what he could see from the boy’s silver eyes (which made him even more interested in the boy), he saw a natural-born warrior in his eyes, a man, a cold blooded killer, who has experienced death time and time again. Eyes that should never belong to a boy like him.

“I say we give Team RWBY an after-school training exercise. What do you think?”

“Hmph, I think that’s foolish,” Goodwitch scoffed as she looked down on the Beacon Academy campus from Ozpin’s Tower.

“They could use a new form of contact that could prove useful for communication purposes. Something vital for teamwork? Plus they could use some pointers from that black-clad boy in the front there,” Ozpin replied to Goodwitch.

“That fool? He should know better than to get involved with such questionable characters as those… strangers,” Goodwitch said with not a breath to spare.

“It appears as if they’ve been travelling for a while too. It would be unwise to turn a blind eye on a weary group of travelers such as them,” Ozpin said with a smirk on their face as he looked to Glynda, who gave a sigh while turned away from him.

“Fine, I’ll contact their Scrolls and have them board a Bullhead for the forest,” Glynda exasperated as she turned on her heel, walking towards the elevator on the other side of the room, already typing away on her tablet. Probably something like “ _EMERALD FOREST. AN URGENT PROBLEM NEEDS INVESTIGATING ASAP.”_ or some shit like that.

Ozpin let out a chuckle thinking about what his top ranking team of freshmen would do with those adventurers.

“Let the games begin,” He said to no-one in particular.

* * *

**_???????? - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Emerald Forest - November 7th, 2024 7:56 PM_**

“Come on… come on…” Kirito whispered to himself.

They had been waiting for a minute, and continued waiting because them spotting red eyes within the shadows of the trees confirmed Kirito’s suspicions about them being watched by those… creatures… whatever the hell they were. The Assault Team’s HUDs would probably identify what monsters they were dealing with when they come out.

“They seem to be pretty smart to be hiding in the shadows like this if they were fighting guys like u-” Klein tried saying when suddenly one of the creatures sprung out of their hiding spot, landing on all fours and letting out a growl as it circled the group. Other creatures then started coming out of the bushes and walking around them.

Beowolves according to the targeting system. It was a pitch black creature with black fur and white bone-like protrusions coming out of its back, blood red eyes, and the general appearance of a ravenous werewolf. It could strike fear into any normal person’s eyes at first contact. But the people these Beowolves were facing weren’t normal people. They were SAO Survivors. The Assault Team. They could handle a couple of those creatures like they were nothing.

Case in point, one of said Beowolves lunged at a spear wielder who easily dispatched said Beowolf with 3 stabs to the groin and a finishing stab in the head, causing it to go limp, and dissipate into black mist.

“What the hell did it just do?” Kirito asked no-one in particular. The answer didn’t come when a Beowolf lunged at Kirito directly, getting easily overwhelmed by his natural skills with two swords at once.

“It appears to be made out of amorphous darkness!” Agil yelled to Kirito, apparently hearing Kirito’s ambiguous question as he chopped a Beowolf’s head off with his battle-axe, Ground Gorge. “Though I can’t understand why it fades into mist rather than shatter into polygons.”

“Does it appear to have weaknesses?” Kirito shouted back to Agil.

“I don’t think so! It appears that it's perfectly vulnerable to normal attacks by normal weapons!” Agil responded.

“Good to know!” Klein said with a cheeky tone as he unleashed a katana Sword Skill upon one of the Beowolves using his katana Karakurenai.

“It still doesn’t hurt to stay close to each other to minimize a chance surprise attack by one of the fucks,” Kirito yelled to everyone.

“Stay together and live. Good idea,” Asuna said as she unleashed a rapier Sword Skill on one of the Beowolves using her signature rapier Lambent Light.

Suddenly though, the ground shook, and the Beowolves scurried away from their position, scared of god knows what.

“What the hell was that earthquake?” Klein asked bewildered.

Kirito, meanwhile, could have sworn he had a stroke from how much his Hypersense was going off like fireworks inside his head. A boss monster, this early on in Floor 76? He KNEW that there was something wrong with this Floor.

“EVERYONE! SCATTER FROM THIS POSITION! NOW!” He screamed as he dragged a couple of players from impending doom when another… much larger fucking creature appeared.

It looked like two supersized cobras, and easily dwarfed all 50 survivors of the Assault Team. As it emerged from the tree line, 5 HP Bars appeared around it and the HUD identified it as an Omega King Taijitu.

“Oi oi oi, you’ve got to be joking right now…” Klein whimpered nervously.

“How could something like this…” Agil trailed off as he _stared_ at the creature.

“YOU’RE ALL GOING TO GET YOURSELVES KILLED! RUN AWAY!” Kirito yelled. Everyone obeyed this command and hightailed it alongside him to another part of the forest, for any number of different reasons, whether it be so that they can get a breather, or so that they can come up with _some_ sort of plan on the fly to kill that fucking Boss. But the entire Assault Team can agree on the one thing that HAS to happen. They have to kill the thing.

* * *

**_???????? - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Above the Emerald Forest - November 7th, 2024 8:55 PM_**

This day really had taken a turn for the worst. At least that’s what Glynda thought when she saw the fucking KING TAIJITU emerge out of nowhere and actively pursue the retreating soldiers. Team RWBY also had a clear view of this through their own Scrolls, and Glynda could tell from their expressions that they felt bad for those guys. They had to act fast, or else blood would be on Ozpin’s hands. Blood that he couldn’t possibly clean up in another lifetime. Especially with the innumerable hidden enemies encircling Vale right now, Ozpin couldn’t possibly take any more workload than he is already. That’s why they needed to act fast right now to save them, and Team RWBY was the perfect team that could do so. Besides, Ozpin said it himself. They could use this as a training exercise for their teamwork.

“Alright, listen up!” Glynda spoke to Team RWBY, who immediately straightened out, with Ruby and Yang jumping at her voice.

“This exercise is simple and straight-forward. You head into the Emerald Forest, go north towards the Initiation ruins, meet up with the group of soldiers stationed there, and work together to bring down the Grimm in the surrounding area. Once you have accomplished that, transportation will be provided for you as well as them to get back to Beacon before more Grimm show up in the surrounding area.”

“Understood.” Weiss and Blake said nonchalantly.

“I WON’T LET YOU DOWN MISS!” Ruby said cheerfully as she made a saluting gesture.

“I’m sure you won’t.” Blake commented offhanded.

“Anything that lets me kick ass is fair game!” Yang exclaimed.

“Yaaaaaaaaaang…” Ruby complained.

“Oh grow up sis.” Yang said teasingly as she ruffled Ruby’s hair up.

“Are you all done fooling around?” Goodwitch asked with a killing glare towards Ruby and Yang, causing them to go “EEP!”.

“Good. You will be dropped off from this point.” She said as the side doors to the Bullhead opened up, showing the ever expanding forest from up above. 

“When you hit the ground, proceed to their location immediately to provide them assistance. Time is of the essence.” With that, she signaled them to jump out of the Bullhead, which they comply with with reluctance.

When Team RWBY enters freefall they end up using a variety of methods to both propel themselves further and slow their descent. Ruby ends up using the recoil from her sniper-scythe Crescent Rose to slow her descent, while she uses her Semblance to glide a little as she descends. Weiss ends up using a gravity glyph to launch her and uses the same gravity glyphs to lessen her descending speed. Blake falls until she reaches tree level and uses Gambol Shroud to swing from branch to branch, gaining significant momentum in the process. Yang simply just boosts herself forward with her shotgun gauntlets Ember Celica, gaining significant speed from the boosts.

Even when they do eventually reach the ground together, they still keep moving forward at blinding speeds, crushing every odd Grimm that comes in their way as they make their way north towards the rendezvous point.

“Haven’t had a day like this since Initiation!” Yang exclaims as she punches a couple Ursai while keeping her momentum up with the rest of the group.

“Don’t they usually wait until our second year to give us missions?” Weiss questioned as she pierced through a couple Lancers in the air.

“Maybe it's because we’re special?” Ruby suggested as she recoil-boosts herself and cuts a couple Beowolves in half.

“Only thanks to you, our glorious ‘Leader’.” Weiss snarked.

“What could have possibly caused that King Taijitu to attack them so aggressively?” Blake asked the group as they continued running towards their destination.

“I don’t know…” Weiss lamented. “But whatever happened mustn’t have been good to trigger such a reaction from the Grimm.”

* * *

**_???????? - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Emerald Forest - November 7th, 2024 9:15 PM_**

“What the hell is that monster?” One of the Assault Team members cried as they took a breather out of sight of that Boss monster. The Assault Team practically had supernatural luck at that point seeing as no-one had died yet from that beast.

“Are there any weak spots on that thing?” Another member asked his teammates.

“I’m not sure, but maybe they have a sort of weak spot similar to a legitimate cobra?” Someone suggested.

“What kind of a weak spot does a fucking cobra have?” Another person jibed as they dodged out of the way of its tail.

 _This is bad,_ Kirito thought to himself. _We aren’t getting anywhere with this stalling._

“Kirito-kun?” Asuna got his attention.

“Yeah, Asuna?”

“I wonder if we could destroy it’s fangs?”

“That’s like begging for suicide,” Kirito deadpanned towards Asuna.

“There has to be a reason why both halves of the snake have those stupid fangs sticking out.”

Kirito then sighed.

“Fine, I’ll try to see if I can lure it out and cut off its fangs,” Kirito exasperated towards Asuna.

With that, he then ran out from his cover and tried taunting the King Taijitu to come his way.

“OI YOU SLIMY CUCKS, GET SOME OF THIS!” He practically shouted.

The black half of it obliged, slithering its way towards Kirito as he tightened his grip on his two swords. He was waiting for a chance to get at it. As soon as the snake opened up his mouth he made his move, charging up the one-handed Sword Skill Sonic Leap. Something felt off about the Sword Skills though. It felt as if they had zero startup and zero aftercast, since as soon as he entered the stance for Sonic Leap, he went flying towards the jaws of the black half of the King Taijitu, nicking one of the fangs with Dark Repulser before being sent flying by one of it’s lunge attacks. As Kirito hit a nearby tree and got up, he noticed something _else_ was off too. He hadn’t lost health at all, from what should have been a fatal hit. He then looked down at his body, and realized that he was covered in a thin coat of… something.

_Instant activation Sword Skills and some sort of Aura… Man this Floor is getting weird._

“Well, at least I was able to nick one of those fangs,” Kirito said to himself. “Though I wonder how I’m going to use this…”

“Maybe you could stab it in the eye.” 

“GAH!” Kirito turned on his heel and put both of his swords in the Cross Block position. Four girls with a strange color theme were standing behind him. Red, White, Black, and Yellow.

Red was a petite little girl, about 5’2”-ish, with a black-red neck-length bob haircut that’s longer along her right cheek than her left, with a gothic lolita-style attire that had a red-black pattern to it and a red cape that had a hood, plus whatever contraption was strapped to her back. She also had silver eyes. This caught Kirito’s attention. There weren’t many humans on Earth who had silver eyes, let alone Japanese people. White, from how she appeared and with the look on her face, seemed to be a generic tsundere or something of the like. She was slightly taller than Red, probably 5’3”-ish, with snow white hair that was tied in an off-center ponytail, and had a white-blue faded skirt that screamed “rich upper class”, with a rapier in her right holster, as well as a vertical scar on her left eye. Black was a little bit more endowed than Red or White, and was slightly shorter than him, probably 5’6”. She seemed a bit more closed book than the other girls, and was probably the one who made that suggestion with the fang I had. She had long flowing black hair with a bow on top (though there was probably more to the bow than just decoration if she intentionally keeps herself this much of a mystery), and almost cat-like amber eyes that were slanted at the ends. For whatever reason she had clothes made by the real life company YKK, a white crop top covered by a black vest, as well as black-purple leggings underneath white short shorts with zippers on them, and had a katana in a holster on her back. Yellow looked the most bombastic of the bunch. She was about Kirito’s height, if not a bit taller than him, at 5’8”. Kirito could tell from her lecherous look that she was some sort of pervert without shame, and had long blonde hair that flowed down to her waist that shone as brightly as the sun, and had bright lilac eyes which completely threw him off from the rest of her aesthetic, which was a yellow crop top covered by a brown bomber jacket, as well as a utility belt with a pseudo-cape behind it, followed by very, very short black tights that accentuated her legs. Everything about her screamed “Pin me down and fuck me”. That probably explains why she was acting so lecherous towards Kirito. All four girls also had their own emblems emblazoned on their clothing. Red’s was a red rose, White’s was a white glyph, Black’s was a purple nightshade flower, while Yellow’s was a gold burning heart.

“Don’t scare him like that, Blake!” Red said to Black, or “Blake”.

“What? I was just giving him some advice,” Blake said back to Red.

“You could’ve, I don’t know, tapped him on the back or something? Said ‘hello’?” Red then retorted to Blake.

“Like an armed and dangerous kid like him is going to take something like a ‘hello’ lightly,” White then scoffed at Red.

“I don’t know how to do these things Weiss! But at least don’t scare him,” Red said to White, or “Weiss”.

 _Original name, “Weiss”._ Kirito thought to himself.

“Ruby, you dolt, he’s right in front of us!” Weiss says to “Ruby”. 

_Yet another original name. Is every NPC on Floor 76 named after a color?_ Kirito thought to himself.

“Uhhm, are you guys going to help my men or what?” Kirito then spoke to the 4 girls, pointing his Elucidator at the two halves of the King Taijitu that are attacking the other Assault Team members as they pry it away from them.

“That’s kinda our whole point being here,” Yellow said to Kirito, winking in the process.

“So, uh, Blake was it?” He then continued, with Blake nodding her head. “I can take out a chunk of its hit points with one of these fangs right here?” He said as he pulled out one of the black half’s fangs.

“One of my comrades did it, though I have yet to see it for myself,” Blake said as she shrugged her arms.

“Well, a rumor is better than nothing I guess,” Kirito chuckled. “Which one of you can get me close to one of those things?”

“Leave it to a Schnee,” Weiss scoffed when, out of nowhere and completely baffling Kirito, she made a glyph angled to launch into the air.

“Is this… magic or something?” Kirito then asked confused. “ _I thought magic systems didn’t exist in SAO…_ ”

“You don’t know what a Semblance is?! And you think you even stand a chance against that Grimm!?” Weiss snapped at Kirito, startling him yet again.

_I have to get out of this somehow._

“Aaaah, right. Semblances. Me and my crew usually referred to them as Passive or Active Skills,” Kirito lied, faking laughter, leading Weiss to, quite literally, slam her palm in her face.

“Just get on the glyph,” Weiss said, annoyed.

“Right, right,” Kirito said as he took position on top of the glyph.

“So, this _can_ bring me above the ‘Grimm’ right?”

“Of course!” Ruby cheered. “Weiss never misses her shots! I believe in her!”

“Right…”

“Be warned, another glyph is going to appear right above the head. You’re going to have to angle yourself to launch yourself off of that glyph as well so that you can effectively pierce one of their eyes,” Weiss explained, not wasting a beat.

“I see, so I just have to activate Sword Skills after boosting myself off of one of the glyphs so I can seal the deal.”

“Sure, whatever that is. Ready?”

“Yeah.”

“3… 2… 1… GO!” Weiss shouted, sending Kirito flying through the air with the fang in his hand.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” He yelled as he was flying.

“KIRITO-KUN!” Asuna cried as she saw him flying.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MAN!?” Klein yelled as well.

Then, when he was above the head of the black half of the Boss monster, he twisted his body and angled himself towards one of the eyes, feeling his boots make contact with the second of Weiss’s glyphs, and launched himself off of the glyph, activating the One Handed Sword Skill Vorpal Strike in the process of positioning the snake fang so that it's pointed towards the monster.

“ ** _HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!_** ” He shouted as he shot forward towards the black half’s right eye as Vorpal Strike was active, appearing as a black blur as the momentum of him launching off of the glyph combined with the sheer speed of the Sword Skill he used, and completely pierced through said eye. 

The black half hissed and convulsed in pain after Kirito jumped off its head, avoiding its unintentional attack patterns as he did so. Everyone was shocked at what Kirito just performed, but they as well as Kirito were disappointed when they saw that the damage it took was only enough to bring down one of its 5 HP Bars, bringing it down to 4 bars with a little of the 4th bar shaven off as well. 

“Uhh… Hi.” Kirito said as everyone stared at him, frozen in place. “Are you guys okay?”

“The hell was that, Kirito?” Klein asked him dumbfounded.

“Kirito! Did you just use magic or something?” Agil asked, also dumbfounded.

“Well, uhh… you see… when I used Sonic Leap to take out one of the fangs and got knocked back… uh… there were a couple of people that I met before trying to get back to the Assault Team,” Kirito tried explaining, and was doing a poor job at doing so.

“BUMBLEBEE!” Ruby suddenly shouted.

“What the-?!” Klein was cut off when a Yellow blur flew through the tree line and quite literally **_punched_** the white half of the Boss monster in the face. THAT shocked everyone, including Kirito. Afterwards the other three girls emerged from said treeline at high speeds.

“Those are the girls I was talking about,” Kirito said, having a mental breakdown inside as the girl in red unfolded a full sized scythe that completely dwarfed her in comparison, easily being twice or even three times her size, as she _shoots_ it, boosting her towards the black half of the Boss. THEN she **_transforms into a red blur_** to dodge its lunges and utilized the recoil on her scythe to cut into the fucking monster.

“Who are these people…” A couple Assault Team members awed at the 4 girls’ teamwork.

“LADYBUG!” Ruby shouted again, leading to her and Blake circling the two halves of the beast, using their sheer speed to get damage off of both halves. It was working. For whatever reason it was working and the girls barely even said a word. They didn’t even use keywords like Switch or Swap Out or Engage. They were able to coordinate complex attack patterns that utilize their strengths and weaknesses to their fullest potential and they used _catchphrases_ to pull it off.

They were an idealization of the Assault Team.

Kirito noticed that the combined efforts of the squad of girls currently _overwhelming_ the creature brought down it’s health. It still had 3 HP Bars despite their efforts. The Assault Team itself had to do everything it can to assist this misfit group of badasses in their efforts to bring down the beast.

“EVERYONE! These girls still can’t take this thing down without our help! We should go on the offensive and help them bring the thing down!” Kirito announced to the rest of the Assault Team.

As if on cue, Blake and Ruby backed off from the creatures, Ruby transforming into a red blur and flying back towards Weiss. Ruby then landed and slammed the blade of her scythe into the ground, yelling “ICE FLOWER!” as Weiss activated a glyph in front of her scythe. Ruby then proceeded to _fire bullets_ out of a muzzle at the end of the scythe, freezing the bullets upon contact with the glyph Weiss had laid out. Said bullets then hit both halves of the monster, flash freezing parts of their bodies in place.

“NOW!” Kirito said, masking his mental breakdown with stoicism.

Many of the players on the Assault Team then charged at the two halves, using their strongest Sword Skills to chip away at the Boss’s health, eventually getting it down to about 1 and a half HP Bars. Klein and Agil double teamed the two halves with Katana Sword Skills and Battle Axe Sword Skills respectively.

“This is good…” Kirito said to himself.

“CANNONBALL!” Ruby then suddenly shouted.

“ _What?!”_ Kirito then exclaimed as he turned toward Team RWBY (arr, double-you, bee, why) as he decided to call them now, as they were getting a slingshot set up somehow. Blake had her katana ribbon wrapped around the space between two of the trees in the clearing, and Weiss was holding it back with her glyphs. Ruby and Yellow Perv were sitting on the contraption itself as they were waiting for Weiss to release.

“The fuck are they doing?” Kirito said to Asuna, who was standing next to him.

“I don’t know…”

“Those two are gonna die, I’m sure of it,” Kirito deadpanned.

“Oh no…”

Suddenly, Weiss destroyed her glyph with a snap of her fingers, causing both Ruby and Yellow Perv to take off at top velocity, Ruby boosting herself off of Yellow Perv as she used **_shotgun gauntlets_** to fucking **_boost herself through the air_**. Ruby then transformed into the red blur that she used before to speed herself up, ending up piercing the black half of the Boss, while Yellow Perv delivered a JoJo-like barrage of punches with her shotgun gauntlets, which continuously fired off as she did so. That brought the thing’s health down to about half of an HP Bar.

“They didn’t die…” Kirito said half-tired.

But it didn’t end there. Suddenly two glyphs appeared behind both Kirito and Asuna, thanks to Weiss, which Asuna was confused about.

“GET ON YOU DOLTS!” Weiss screamed at both Kirito and Asuna.

“She wants us to get the Last Attack bonus, so get on the glyph and prepare a Sword Skill,” Kirito explained tiredly to Asuna.

“Okay…” She replied confused.

When both Kirito and Asuna were on the glyphs that Weiss had set up, Weiss activated the glyphs, sending both of them flying.

When Asuna got close enough to the white half, she activated Star Splash as her Sword Skill, delivering a multitude of stabs both high and low, finishing with an extremely powerful final stab in between the eyes, before falling and landing gracefully, placing her rapier back in its hip holster. 

Kirito on the other hand, went for the same skill that he used when he was first launched at the black half of the snake.

“Vorpal… STRIKE!” He shouted as he sped through the air, literally breaking the sound barrier as he positioned both Elucidator and Dark Repulser to strike at the same time. 

“ ** _HAAAAAAAAAAAAA_**!” He shouted as both swords made contact with the black half’s head, piercing through the skin and hitting the brain, as the snake went limp. Kirito then backflipped off of the creature while placing his two swords back in their holsters on his back, landing back on the ground on one knee before getting back up.

Then, both halves of the creature dissipated into black mist. They had defeated their first boss on the 76th Floor.

 ** _“YEAAAAAH! WOOOOO!”_** The Assault Team suddenly cheered. They had actually survived the first of what would be many horrible boss fights to come on Floor 76. Then a familiar message popped up:

**CONGRATULATIONS**

Said message appeared in front of every Assault Team member’s screen. They had been awarded the usual shit for defeating bosses like this, such as Col (which had been renamed to Lien for whatever reason), and experience points. But there was also something new that had been added below those two counters.

“Dust…? What is that?” Kirito said to himself.

“You did it Kirito! Man I knew you’d be a better leader than that Kayaba cuck!” Klein congratulated Kirito as he approached him and slapped him on the back.

“Man I can’t wait to get to the shops,” One member of the Assault Team said.

“FUCKING JACKPOT!” Another member exclaimed.

“I’ll be able to regain all the skills I’ve lost with this!” Some other member cheered

“Wait, everyone!” Kirito announced, and then the chatter died down. Kirito waited several seconds before continuing. “Check your rewards screens.”

Everyone did as they were told, they were initially nonplussed since the items all looked the same to them.

“You see the indicator that says ‘Dust’ right?” Kirito then continued after waiting a minute for everyone to check their rewards.

Then everyone started murmuring, confused by what “Dust” could possibly mean.

“There might be entirely new systems all together that are being introduced to us now. I’m not entirely sure what this ‘Dust’ is, but I’m sure Kayaba had some sort of purpose for it even if he made it appear as late as it did in SAO.”

“Especially with what's below that,” Kirito said as he pulled up his menu, went to the items section, and converted the item designated as “Scroll” into an object.

“This is the other reward given to us. A ‘Scroll’.”

People’s murmurs got louder and more intense.

“As you can see, this is perfectly functioning modern technology. Something that doesn’t exist in SAO,” He said as he navigated through the touch-based GUI of the so-called “Scroll”.

“I have a theory for this. What would Kayaba Akihiko do if he didn’t want people to expect the dangers of SAO when they were suddenly and deliberately trapped within its walls? Would he change the layout of the castle itself? Or would he create an entirely new world separate from Aincrad but existing within the same game?”

Then everyone froze.

“W-what are you implying Kirito-kun?” Asuna asked Kirito warily.

“You’ve seen what those four girls over there can do, haven’t you?” He said to the Assault Team as he pointed his finger over towards the puzzled group of girls in bright colors.

“Their skills, their weapon types, even their _powers_ don’t exist in the lower floors of SAO,” Kirito then clarified.

“This isn’t Aincrad. Kayaba Akihiko hasn’t created just _one_ world to run on the Cardinal System. He’s created _two_ of them, and we are currently standing in the second world of his creation. If you looked at your maps hard enough, then it does nothing but confirm this as fact. You can’t see any of Aincrad’s Floors, and the world map is flat, with various nations, areas of mob activity, and Towns highlighted. A completely different world map from the one we used to navigate Aincrad.”

“This world also has other different systems and rules all together from what we’ve familiarized ourselves with in Aincrad. Those girls over there don’t have player indicators. They’re NPCs. AI. The AI systems in this world acted **_on their own accord_** to give us assistance against that monster. They have free will to do whatever actions they deem worthy, or necessary. He deliberately hid systems from us just so that he could throw us off when we were expecting the same type of stuff we’ve always gone through for 75 Floors in a row.”

“What we’ve been experiencing up until this point was a fucking trial run. It was a mind game employed by Kayaba Akihiko to condition us into becoming what we are right now. Aincrad was just the start. This world right here, _Remnant_ , that we are currently standing on right now…” Kirito balled his fists up, his face and voice filled with malice and hatred for the man who had managed to create all of this, his eyes turning from a dull obsidian into a bright, mirror-esque silver, shining radiantly similar to Ruby’s eyes. 

“Is where the real death game begins.”

* * *

**_Fragment of the Gods’ Creation: Remnant - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_???????? - November 7th, 2024 ??:?? PM_**

Cinder Fall had been sitting in her hideout when she had gotten footage from that very location that was in the Emerald Forest where the Initiation takes place. The place where the self-proclaimed Assault Team was assisted by Little Red’s team of misfits in taking down that giant Grimm that had begun assaulting _them_. An Omega King Taijitu. Cinder would say that it was in their face, if all 50 of those incompetent brats hadn’t survived thanks to FUCKING Ruby and her team.

“It seems that new pawns have entered into the fray… Salem,” Cinder spoke to the Seer next to her.

Suddenly, an astral form of a witch with pitch black robes appeared from the Seer. Said witch had deathly pale white skin, with dark red veins covering her skin, and her white hair tied back into 8 separate knots, resembling an octopus, as well as pitch black eyes with red irises. She was the embodiment of darkness, and this fact alone rejuvenates Cinder when in her presence. Cinder herself was a well endowed woman in her mid-20s, with fair skin, and golden irises, as well as ashen-black hair that comes down to her chest on the left side of her face. She had been wearing the Haven Academy uniform despite being undercover at Beacon, but when she isn’t playing such a futile role, she usually wears a crimson off-the-shoulders v-neck minidress with yellow highlights and black shorts underneath that accentuates her bewitching beauty and sexiness, and revels in bringing suffering to others who’d dare to take advantage of such a fact. The yellow designs and highlights themselves are actually due to her sewing Fire Dust into her miniskirt. She also has a black choker on her neck, as well as a feather decoration on her right hip when she’s actually wearing her crimson miniskirt.

“Hmm… New players have entered the game. I see. Heathcliff had been right in giving us this information,” Salem gave her two cents on the “Players” that were on Cinder’s screen.

“Humans from a higher dimension, communicating with lower dimensions using virtual avatars engineered and designed to kill. Who would’ve thought that senile old man had been correct,” Cinder sardonically chuckled, thinking back on that conversation with the self-proclaimed “Kayaba Akihiko, the builder of the Floating Castle Aincrad”.

“And it seems his key to breaking the cycle has also entered the fray too,” Salem noted, pointing out the raven-haired _boy_ in the black trench-coat and combat gear in the center of them all.

“ _Aincrad was just the start. This world right here, Remnant, that we are standing on right now… Is where the real death game begins,_ ” The boy addressed the other “Players” while Little Red’s team stood off to the side confused by his words.

“Silver eyes… Impossible,” Salem gasped as she looked closer at his effeminate face, filled with iron will and fire-forged strength.

“It seems he’ll be a problem for our plans… don’t you think?” Cinder asked Salem, facing toward her.

“Yes. It seems so. We can’t let him kill that man and completely break the cycle of pain and suffering all together. It was said that the one who has mastered the Dual Blades will cut a path for all of humanity to follow, and I cannot allow that to happen,” Salem told Cinder. “Bring me the Black Swordsman and his friends in time. We can’t do it immediately to arouse suspicion, and we can’t wait until he’s gotten too close to the truth. We have to act in the right moment, or else we risk everything we’ve built up until this point. If he gets away… Ozpin will win.”

“Understood, Your Grace,” Cinder said while turning her head back to her tablet, with the footage of the “Dual Blades Master Kirito” and his army of avatars of extra-dimensional beings displayed on it.

“You know, Salem…” Cinder said to Salem before Salem was able to switch off the Seer, which would sever her connection with Cinder. “Someone asked me a long time ago if I had believed in Destiny.”

Cinder laughed seductively. “I am happy to say that I still do.” Then Salem cut the connection through the Seer.

Cinder then watched as Kirito continued talking when she unpaused the footage.

“ _This, however, changes nothing about our goal, or our true enemy who has created both worlds,_ ” Kirito said. “ _Even if we’re cut off from Aincrad and are forced to move forward in this game, we still have to do just that. Move forward, and never look back. We only have one shot at defeating the final boss of SAO and clearing the game. If we don’t take that chance, we’re eventually going to die anyways. Think about what changes our bodies are going through in the real world. Think about the fact that if we don’t take action soon, our bodies might actually start to decay in the real world. If we sit around, lollygagging based on the notion that Kayaba lied to us, we’ll get nowhere, and die a natural death that we never wanted in the first place._ ”

“ _The only true way out of Sword Art Online… Is to clear the game and save everyone waiting for us back in Aincrad. Save those who have placed hope in US, the Assault Team, that we would bring THEM deliverance from this death game as we cleared the 75 floors of Aincrad. Save those who have despaired for 2 years because they were trapped with no way out._ ”

“ _There is no turning back, people. We shall stand side-by-side from now on, and face whatever challenges come our way, and whatever obstacles prevent us from achieving the freedom we sorely deserve from the shackles of virtual reality._ ”

“ _We will not back down now, and we certainly won’t surrender ourselves to the whims of Kayaba Akihiko. This is OUR chance, everyone. A new world to fight through. We can do this. We have been able to fight our way through Aincrad,”_ He said as he raised his fist toward the sky, before slowly lowering it towards his face. “ _And we will be able to fight our way through Remnant too._ ”

“ _Onward! To the Kingdom of Vale!_ ”

“ ** _YEEEAAAAAAH!_** ” The Assault Team shouted.

 _That kid certainly knows how to change a mood._ Cinder thought to herself as she switched off the footage from the Emerald Forest.

“First, he has Dual Blades, then he has the Silver Eyes, and now this. This child is quite the piece of work.” 

Cinder then looked through data of other players within close proximity of said “Black Swordsman”. Asuna, the “Lightning Flash” of the high-level guild Knights of the Blood; Lisbeth, his Blacksmith; Silica, the Loli Dragon Tamer; Yui, aka the emotion-analysis AI system MHCP-001, his “daughter”; Argo the Whiskered Info-Broker; and his two male friends, Klein, the guildmaster of Fuurinkazan; and Agil, Aincrad’s finest merchant. All easy targets to weaken Kirito, the Black Swordsman and leave him vulnerable. Vulnerable enough to snatch away, and corrupt him into one of Salem’s pawns against Ozpin. So much progress before the fun has even started. She chuckled at this. This was going to be the best time of Cinder Fall’s _life_ , and she couldn’t wait to begin.

“This is the beginning of the end, Ozpin,” She said as she got up from her bed, went over to her dormitory window and looked through towards Ozpin’s tower in the middle of the night, her right eye burning some of the Fall Maiden’s flame that she had so rightfully earned, and a wide, seductive, pure evil smile crawling its way on her face. “And I can’t _wait_ to watch you burn.”

  
Opening: RE: I Am by Aimer (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096) [<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLDZO-dN_ls>]


	2. Truths and Hopes

Opening: RE:I Am (Aimer) [<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLDZO-dN_ls>]

**_Fragment of the Gods’ Creation: Remnant - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Emerald Forest - November 7th, 2024 9:45 PM_ **

“Onwards! To the Kingdom of Vale!” Kirito shouted vigorously to hype up the Assault Team, as he pumped his fist towards the sky.

“ **_YEAAAAAAAAH!_ **” The Assault Team responded.

They needed to celebrate their first victory before they could actually make a move to send scouts out across the continent to find possible hotspots where other dungeons and Floor Bosses could be. That is what Kirito was going to get everyone to do, if he hadn’t been stopped by Ruby’s group.

“I don’t know what gibberish you were rattling on about, ‘Kirito’, but we have orders from our headmaster here at Beacon to bring you and your army onto the school grounds, so that you, and whoever else leads this ragtag group of rascals, can speak with him personally,” Weiss rattled on without missing a beat.

 _Jeez, she could probably win an Osu tourney with how she isn’t missing any beats._

“Uhhh… did she just say ‘Headmaster’, Agil?” Kirito said with a nervous laugh.

“As far as I’m aware, yes,” Agil said nonchalantly, which caused Kirito, Klein, and Asuna to sweatdrop. “Why are you in need of college staff when all four of you are essentially child soldiers?” Agil then inquired to the group.

“WE’RE NOT CHILD SOLDIERS YOU DUNCE!” Weiss snapped at Agil.

“Uh heh heh… let’s start the introductions over, alright guys?” Ruby then got in the middle of Agil and Weiss, where Weiss had killing intent in her face and Agil was simply smirking, having found a crack in her Ice Queen stature.

“Best idea anyone has ever had all day,” Kirito replied, eyeing the rest of the Assault Team behind Agil, Klein, and Asuna with a glare as sharp as his dual blades, causing them to quiver in fear.

“Oh. Okay, AHEM, uhh… I’m Ruby Rose! Proud Huntress-in-Training and leader of Team RWBY (ruby)!” She cheered.

“I’m Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, and member of Team RWBY,” Weiss announced with extreme amounts of pride in her voice.

“I’m Blake Belladonna, I was forced into her group,” Blake deadpanned as she was reading a book that came from absolutely fucking nowhere.

“AAAAAAAAND I’m Yang Xiao Long!” the Yellow Perv exclaimed as she grabbed Ruby and hugged her until Ruby was suffocating on her… rather… large boobs. “Ruby’s _extremely_ hot sister!”

Kirito, Asuna, and Agil let out a tired sigh at that declaration, while Ruby was struggling free from Yang’s surprisingly strong grasp, while babbling “Let me go!” and “I demand to be released!” and for some reason “I’M A BIG GIRL! I! DRINK! MILK!”. Meanwhile Klein was eyeing Yang from top to bottom, for whatever reason.

“I already like you Yang,” He then flirted while pointing a finger at her with a smirk on his face.

“Maybe after we’re done with your headmaster, then… you and I coul-” Before Klein was able to finish his pick up line Kirito jumped in front of him and his palm struck him in the chest, causing Klein to lose air immediately, and crumple to the floor.

All four members of Team RWBY immediately sweatdropped and had a nervous smile on their faces as soon as Kirito turned around after doing so, their arms dangling at their sides.

“Don’t worry about him, I only struck to take the air out of his lungs and knock him unconscious, so he’ll be fine,” Kirito unsuccessfully tried to calm them.

“Anyways, I’m Kirito, the guy who has these two swords,” He said as he pulled out Elucidator and Dark Repulser, twirling them around skillfully as if they were paperweights before putting them back in their sheathes.

“This right here is Asuna, the fastest member of my team. She’s so fast we decided to nickname her ‘The Lightning Flash’.”

“Kirito-kuuuuuuun, why do you have to bring that up to them…” Asuna whined as Kirito chuckled.

“Why not? We might as well get to know people better if they’re functionally and fundamentally different from the people we’ve already encountered,” Kirito said.

“Anyways, this is Agil, a well respected merchant that travels with me, aaand that… crumpled corpse on the floor… is Klein. My friend.”

“I’m the leader of the Assault Team,” Kirito then proclaimed in a fake dramatic voice. “A prestigious band of Huntsmen who travel all over Remnant in search of the biggest Grimm to kill!”

“Ugh, Stupid Kirito…” Asuna muttered to herself.

“Give me a break…” muttered Agil.

“Hmm… Really?” Weiss said in an amused voice with a smirk that screams “You’re shit at lying”.

“Then why did you need help from a team of Huntresses IN TRAINING to bring down a simple Omega King Taijitu, oh glorious Huntsman?” Weiss said sardonically.

“Uh… ehehehe… that right there is a good question,” Kirito said while scratching the back of his head.

“You see, the Assault Team has more members than what you’re currently seeing. We are a volunteer group that gathers whatever Huntsman or Huntress we can find to go hunting for the big scores. It turns out that our group wasn’t as up to par today,” Kirito continued to lie while chuckling nervously.

“Hmm, that’s odd, because if I recall correctly, I have never heard a mention of this so-called ‘Assault Team’ anywhere on the CCT in any of the Four Kingdoms,” Weiss then said.

 _I knew I was shit at lying,_ Kirito mentally face-palmed.

But before he could spiral further down into a hole he could never dig out of, a transport vehicle had approached the clearing they were in.

“ _This is Professor Glynda Goodwitch speaking,_ ” The intercom on the transport vehicle spoke. “ _You are trespassing within school boundaries and as part of protocol here, we shall see to it that all members of your group are transported onto school grounds so that the headmaster can speak with you all directly. Is that clear?_ ”

“Uhhh… Is she talking to me?” Kirito asked Agil.

“Probably,” Agil replied curtly.

“Yeah… I understand completely,” Kirito spoke to the transport.

“ _Very well then. Welcome to Beacon Academy,_ ” She said as more transport vehicles arrived to transport the other Assault Team members. Well, hopefully at least.

“ _All members of your group shall enter these Bullheads in groups of eight. Who are the other three main members of your group?”_

“Eh… Asuna, Klein, and Agil?”

“ _Very well._ ” The “Bullhead” spoke again, now descending onto the ground alongside the other “Bullheads” parked on the ground. “ _You four shall come with me and Team RWBY as we speak to Headmaster Ozpin._ ”

“Oz...pin?” Kirito said out loud.

Then the main Bullhead opened its side doors, revealing a… rather tall woman with a rather fancy combination of a white pleated top with wrist pleats and a high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings.

“Come, I haven’t got all day,” She sighed as she pointed her riding crop at both Kirito’s group and Team RWBY.

“Riding crop… right… don’t get on her bad side…” Kirito said to himself for everyone to hear. “WAIT WHY DO YOU HAVE A RIDING CROP?”

* * *

**_Fragment of the Gods’ Creation: Remnant - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Beacon Academy: Beacon Tower - November 7th, 2024 10:30 PM_ **

The ride to Beacon Academy from the Bullheads was rather uneventful, to say the least. The only thing that really happened was Klein waking up after being knocked unconscious by Kirito, and then after eyeing Ms. Goodwitch (Mrs. Goodwitch? No-one knows shit about which is correct.) and attempting to flirt with her, getting knocked unconscious by Kirito yet again, who claimed it was a force of habit while being scoffed at by her. Asuna and Agil simply laughed nervously at this altercation while Team RWBY simply gave Kirito a puzzled look.

“You do realize that a woman can handle herself, right boy?” Goodwitch asked Kirito, who was standing her while carrying Klein on his back and was scratching the back of his head.

“Ehhh… I just have my own… unique way of dealing with dumbasses before they do something stupid or something they’ll regret later on,” Kirito explained while laughing nervously.

“Hmph. Well then. I must congratulate you on your efficiency in such manners,” Goodwitch commented nonchalantly.

“He definitely gave him _some_ sort of treatment…” Yang mumbled to herself.

When they went inside of the ground floor of the tower, they hadn’t been expecting something as grandiose as what was in front of them. Everything about the main hall of the tower exuded an elegance that couldn’t even be found in that big cathedral in the Town of Beginnings that had everyone’s name on it. Obviously Kirito, Asuna, and Agil were awestruck by this exudence.

“You can sight-see at another point in time,” Glynda snapped them out of their daze, pinching the bridge of her nose as she did so. “You shall enter Ozpin’s office through one of the elevators here. Team RWBY, you’re dismissed for the night. Go back to your dorms.”

“Aww…” Yang sighed. “I was starting to enjoy Blackie’s company over here,” She said, winking at Kirito.

_Is that the best nickname you could come up for me? Blackie? I haven’t even heard that being used since Floor 20._

Kirito face-palmed at the name given to him by Yang, as did Asuna and Agil. _Especially_ Agil, considering the context that that nickname could be taken in was the reason people had stopped using it all together in Aincrad.

“Well, beggars can’t be choosers,” Kirito mumbled to himself when one of the elevator doors opened for him, Asuna, Agil, and Klein who was still on Kirito’s back.

“See you around, Kirito?” Ruby asked him as he turned to face her.

“Yeah, hopefully I’ll see you around,” He reassured her as he waved at her and her Team, before stepping on the elevator.

 _Now… What floor would Ozpin’s office be on?_ Kirito thought to himself. _Maybe Floor 99?_

Kirito pressed the button that said “99” on it, and the elevator doors closed when Asuna and Agil got inside of it.

Then they suddenly felt gravity shifting as the elevator brought them up to the top of the tower.

“Jeez, I haven’t been on one of these things in a while…” Kirito said.

“Well, none of us have, so…” Agil quickly corrected Kirito.

“Ah, right. Forgot,” Kirito said.

“Still, this feels so surreal,” Asuna commented off-hand. “We’re walking around in what is functionally a modern society, when we’ve been so used to the medieval aesthetic for two years.”

“I know. What blows my mind even more is why Kayaba would take such an interest in making a world such as this,” Kirito gave his two cents.

“Maybe we’ll be able to get some answers out of this old geezer,” Agil said as the elevator was approaching the 99th Floor.

“What _is_ Ozpin going to be like anyways?” Kirito asked.

“I don’t know. I hope he goes easy on us though, considering what we’ve been through this past day already.”

“Right… That _would_ be in our favor,” Kirito said. _Though I don’t understand why a school’s headmaster would take interest in soldiers like us. Maybe there’s something deeper going on behind the scenes that would be hidden behind a mask of sorts. I’ll have to investigate as soon as we’re done here._

Then, suddenly, the elevator made a *ding* sound, signifying that they’ve reached the top floor of the tower. What they saw when the elevator doors opened was even greater than what they had seen in the lobby of the tower.

“Woaaah… A clockwork room…?” Kirito awed at the gears turning on the floor and up above, as if the room itself were some kind of clock. “How…?-”

“Did I make this room? Good question, young man.” A white haired man replied from behind his… _computer desk_? 

“Let’s say… some _magic_ was involved in the construction process.” He continued, giving a smirk in the process, as if pleased with the pun he made.

“Who are you?” Kirito then asked him.

“The man you’ve been searching for, of course. The Wonderful Wizard.”

“Oh… Ozpin,” Kirito then realized. “Fuck you for that pun.”

“Thank you, your comment has been duly noted.” Ozpin laughed.

“Anyways, what do you want from us and the Assault Team anyway?” Kirito asked immediately.

“Hmm, cutting straight to the chase are we? Very well,” He replied. “One of my colleagues, a dusty old Qrow, was out on recon a couple of hours ago, scanning through the Forever Fall forest (and probably drinking too), when he picked up signatures of others with excess reserves of Aura. That would be you he’s referring to, wouldn’t it?”

Kirito’s mind then flashed back to the moment when he was hit by that Omega King Taijitu and took no damage from it, and saw himself covered in something shiny and ultraviolet.

_So that’s what Aura is, Christ I’m a clairvoyant. Probably explains why none of my comrades died either._

“What do you mean, Aura-?” Agil was about to comment when Kirito barged in.

“Aura is supposed to be some passive shield buff that gives you an extra layer of protection,” He explained. “We were all given it somehow when we stepped into here from Floor 75,” he then whispered so that only Asuna and Agil could hear.

“Oh, so that’s why no-one died. Well, that’s awfully convenient,” Agil laughed.

“It is, young man,” Ozpin said.

“Anyways, my question to you is,” He continued as he leaned closer towards Kirito. “Where did you come from?”

_Fuck, how do I answer him… I could act dumb and say “Me and my crew just stumbled our way into the Forever Fall forest and got lost” but the fact that he’s probably smarter than I can ever imagine him being, combined with my shitty lying skills, will probably cause him to bat an eye at me. But how do I explain the truth in a way that’s comprehensible and won’t cause him to think that I’m insane?_

“Having a little trouble?” Ozpin asked Kirito.

“Uhmmm, no. I’m fine.” He abruptly brushed off Ozpin.

“It’s alright if your story seems a little… bizarre,” Ozpin said to him. “I’ve seen things more bizarre than anyone can imagine in a single lifetime. Semblances that affect probability, Aura deficiencies, the occasional eccentric student here and there, Hell even genetically modified Grimm. I’ll be sure to hear anything that you tell me.”

 _Does he mean that?_ Kirito thought to himself. _He doesn’t seem the type to bluff these sorts of things. Just feeling him out with my Hypersense is enough evidence of that. But I can’t help but wonder if he’s really so trustworthy?_

“Kirito-kun?” Asuna said.

“Well, Kirito?” Agil asked.

“Alright-”

As if on cue, Klein had suddenly woke up from his unconscious state and was startled at what he was witnessing before him.

“The hell? What’s up with this place?” He said puzzled.

“I take it, that's your friend that you dragged up here?” Ozpin inquired Kirito.

“Yeah, that’s Klein.” Klein then got up from the floor and saw Ozpin sitting in what he could deduce was a computer desk.

“Uhhh… Yo, geezer,” He said awkwardly as he gave a semi-salute with his right hand.

“Hello, Klein. I’m Professor Ozpin. I’ve just been having a talk with your 3 other friends about where they came from. If you could help fill in the details that would be appreciated.”

“Uhh, heh heh, I’m not the best with those kinds of things… Kirito should be good at that,” Klein replied.

“Uhh… yeah, I was going to answer Oz when you woke up…” Kirito then said.

“Well then. Kirito, why don’t you explain to me who exactly you are so that I can understand exactly _how_ you were able to sneak onto secure school property,” Ozpin said, narrowing his eyes, glaring blades at Kirito. Kirito, on the other hand, was looking at Asuna and Agil for some sort of confirmation about how to proceed.

“Should I tell him everything?” Kirito asked them both.

“What do you mean by everything?” Asuna asked.

“You know what I mean,” Kirito replied, his face getting serious, causing Asuna to realize what exactly he meant by _everything_.

“Ehhh, K-Kirito, I’m not sure if he actually knows yet…”

“Know what?” Ozpin asked with a sharp tone, further narrowing his eyes at Kirito, causing Kirito to simply just sigh.

“Have you heard of a place called Aincrad?” Kirito asked Ozpin, whose face immediately softened at the mention of it.

“Of course. The Tale of The Floating Prison Castle is quite the common tale in Vale and Atlas,” Ozpin said to Kirito, with a smile on his face. “100,000 humans from another world, completely disappearing without a trace, locked up in another reality of infinite skies and clouds for two years, inside a floating castle consisting of 100 country-sized floors they have to fight their way through to break free. All led by their messiah and savior, The Black Swordsman.” Kirito’s eyes widened at the mention of The Black Swordsman. Asuna, Agil, and Klein were at an absolute loss for words.

 _They KNOW about us?_ Kirito screamed inside his head.

“The Black Swordsman’s roots were thought to be humble. He was another normal human just like the rest of the folk locked up alongside him, but as he came to realize his situation alongside the other humans, he quickly took up arms and lead a team of the most experienced warriors among the humans to fight for their freedom by attacking the dungeons of the Floor Bosses. He had lost and gained many friends along the way, performed many activities and partook in various festivities. He was your typical everyman, dressed in a black trenchcoat, with a chestplate thought to originate from the cogs of a machine, as well as raven-black messy hair, an effeminate face that soothed the mood surrounding him, and silver eyes that shone light into the darkness.”

_Why… Why must it be this way?_

“He, however, also had a unique gift that caused him to stand out from the rest of his peers. He had an innate talent and a knack for wielding two longswords at once, effectively boosting his combat capabilities twice over compared to his peers. It was once said that he was able to break the sound barrier itself with how fast he swung both blades at once, and that he could utterly decimate a supersized minotaur with only 16 simultaneous swings of both swords.”

_Stop it… please. Stop it..._

“Eventually, after two whole years of being trapped within the castle, they had reached Floor 75 of the Castle. Nearly everyone who was on The Black Swordsman’s team was killed, and the survivors were completely scarred, both mentally and physically. Except for one.”

“ _Heathcliff…_ ” Kirito growled out loud. Ozpin took note of this. He scanned the boy from top to bottom, just to confirm what he had laid his eyes on. He had been right in all of his assumptions.

“I’m… a legend among these people.” Kirito said. He was utterly angry. How could they twist their story like this?

“Our very real pain… the suffering… the 40,000 lives killed by this game… is nothing but a mere FAIRY TALE!” Kirito screamed at Ozpin.

“I’ve seen misery. I’ve seen despair. People have turned their backs on me out of personal grudges and hatred. People have died for mistakes I made during those two years.”

“And YOU think that this was just some sort of FUCKING BEDTIME STORY?! THAT THE GRIEF WE HAD TO GO THROUGH WAS NOTHING MORE THAN AN AFTERTHOUGHT COMPARED TO YOUR SO-CALLED REALITY?!”

Asuna, Agil, and Klein had stepped back several feet from Kirito due to his outburst, but Ozpin simply just sat there. He just sat there in his chair behind his desk nonchalantly, not taken back whatsoever by what he believed to be a natural reaction to this sort of thing. Ozpin knew everything about the boy. Ozpin also knew how to diffuse something like this.

“Actually, I think the contrary,” He then stated, as if he knew everything. “The fact that you and your friends are here, standing before me, is absolute irrefutable proof of your existence, Kirito the Black Swordsman. Thanks to you, your pain IS real. Your pain is believable. Everything you’ve experienced, your loss, your grief, your agony, your solitude, your loneliness, your despair, is real. With your existence, people have no choice but believe that such a scenario is indeed possible. With your existence, people can rest easy knowing that even in the blackest darkness, light always finds its way to consume all.”

Somehow, Ozpin was able to deflate Kirito’s anger down to nothing with this speech.

“Quite literally as well. After all, you do have Silver Eyes, Kirito. It was visible when you were teeming with rage yelling at me,” Ozpin laughed.

“But I digress. Your story, alongside countless others that have been told across countless generations and over thousands, if not millions of years, are the reason why the Huntsmen of Remnant exist. We provide the light in the perpetual darkness that is this world. The stories that have been told by countless entertainers and show performers across the millennia and across eons fuel our drive to protect the innocent from the ever-looming threat of Grimm. Your sudden appearance near one of the shining beacons of hope in this bleak world is an absolute message. A message that tells those who control and dwell in the dark that their decimation and total annihilation is upon them. A message of forewarning against those who might be plotting against us, and planning to divide us so that we become weak. A message to those who cause chaos and anarchy in such a way that the only ones we can point at are each other. A message that the light is real and that it shall bring reckoning upon the evils of the world.” He said, with a serious face that tells Kirito that he wasn’t lying despite literally all of the theatrics he displayed with his words.

“You will be the beacon of light that illuminates all during our twilight years to reinvigorate the people’s spirit to push back against our oppressors. You are our savior, who will crush the witch of darkness herself before she gains an iron grip on us. The witch of darkness named _Salem_.”

_Salem? I didn’t think that there would be an SAO boss named after the Witch Trials._

“After all, it was said in the fairy tale that the one who wields the Dual Blades was the one best suited to clear the game.”

Suddenly, Kirito felt himself choke on nothing, and his eyes shot wide open as his legs weakened, and collapsed. He started naturally shaking and quivering on his knees, hyperventilating as large beads of sweat made their appearance on his face.

_Did he just say “clear the game”? Are the people self-aware about their reality? Is Salem the true final boss, rather than Heathcliff? Impossible…_

“Kayaba was lying to us this whole time…” Kirito struggled to speak with his labored breathing. “I was right, this WAS the true death game. He had us fooled for two years straight.”

“No…” Agil said, utterly shocked by the revelations that unravelled in front of them.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Klein shook his head in disbelief.

“B-b-but how?” Asuna stammered in fear.

“All of you seem surprised. I’m only telling you what was said in the fairy tale.”

“What happened in the fairy tale?” Kirito asked Ozpin. “What was this ‘happily ever after’ that your people envisioned happening to us?”

Several seconds passed after Kirito asked this question before Ozpin cleared his throat and continued with the fairy tale.

“After The Radiant Knight paralyzed everyone besides the Black Swordsman with a spell, he told the Black Swordsman that if he defeated him then and there that everyone would be freed from the world, but if he didn’t, then they would have to continue up to Floor 100 without him, when at Floor 100 he would take the role as the final boss of the castle,” Ozpin recalled as the others in the room listened intently. “The Black Swordsman eagerly accepted the invitation, and began to take position in front of The Radiant Knight despite the pleas, cries, and screams of his fellow peers to not engage him. He didn’t heed their warnings. He only cared about fighting to save everyone. He wanted to take the shot immediately, unless he loses that chance and can never get it back. When they actually fought, it was a stalemate. The Black Swordsman at that point was the peerless, agile, unmatched, and only master of the Dual Blades, while The Radiant Knight was an impenetrable fortress of a Holy Blade master, wielding a Holy Sword and kite shield at the same time. The Black Swordsman was fast, nimble, tactical, and powerful in his strikes, but The Radiant Knight had an impenetrable defense that put him above the rest, including The Black Swordsman.”

“The Black Swordsman eventually attempted to utilize one final burst of speed to try to break The Radiant Knight’s guard, when one of his swords broke after finishing with a stab at his shield.” Ozpin said.

_Wait, this sounds different from what actually happened…_

“When The Black Swordsman was stunned and shocked at what had actually happened to his swords, The Radiant Knight took advantage of the moment, bidding the Black Swordsman farewell, before attempting to slash him across the chest. But at that moment, as he was bringing his blade down upon him, something unexpected happened.” Ozpin explained. “The Black Swordsman’s love of his life, The Lightning Flash, jumped in front of The Black Swordsman after she broke the paralysis spell placed on her, and took the full brunt force of The Radiant Knight’s Holy Blade.”

_What?! No… don’t tell me that was supposed to be the proper order of events…_

“The Black Swordsman immediately caught her as she fell to the ground, shaken by her brazen attempt to save his life as he struggled to come to terms with the reality of the situation. The love of his life perished, with her final words being, ‘Thank you… Goodbye…’. The Black Swordsman was left shell shocked, and in absolute despair after this. Despite this, however, he picked up her rapier, and continued to dual wield again, except putting no effort behind his swings anymore. He had completely given up. When The Radiant Knight noticed his lack of will to live, he effortlessly knocked away The Black Swordsman’s remaining sword, and pierced him in the chest. But, as The Black Swordsman felt his life escaping his body, he made one final move. He felt every fiber of his existence strain, begging him to accept his death, trying to punish him for letting himself get killed. Yet even as the world itself fought against him, as the laws of nature pushed him down, The Black Swordsman got back up, and continued moving forward. Step-by-tiny-step, he moved forward. With a new found resolution, The Black Swordsman let out one last battle cry as he took the rapier in his hand and pierced through The Radiant Knight’s armor. Both of them died at the same spot, at the same time. The Black Swordsman had beaten the world itself and freed the souls of everyone. While the survivors of the castle would have their souls returned to their natural homeworld, The Radiant Knight would be punished in the depths of Hell for his sins, while The Black Swordsman would find peace within himself, as he reunites with his eternal love alongside the countless others who have perished in the infinite heavens above.”

Kirito and Asuna were utterly confused by this resolution. This wasn’t the ending they were expecting in the slightest, despite the fact that most fairy tales are twisted from their original stories into said fairy tales, or the other way around, though it was the former for them.

Klein and Agil were similarly confused as well.

“But… what… I survived against the commander…” Kirito struggled to get out.

“Which can be considered nothing short of a miracle.” Ozpin then clarified. “Had there been no interference, divine intervention, blessing from God, or otherwise, then you and Asuna over there would both be dead. Heathcliff has you outclassed in every way possible. The only reason you were able to defeat him in the fairy tale was because of the fact that you were able to abuse his open guard when he stabbed you despite you dying in the process. I assume it was as difficult in reality if not more so than it was in the fairy tale, which meant that _something_ must have happened to cause you to overcome him. And that’s what brought you and your team here to my school.”

_Wait… something did seem strange about when I stabbed Heathcliff at the end of that fight. My vision froze when I stabbed him, and appeared to split in half. That must have been some server-side issues having to do with the game itself… wait, afterwards when we entered the Forever Fall forest, our item data appeared as moon runes, and our skill data was corrupted, despite everything else on our menus working fine, and new items functioning properly. Also, Heathcliff appeared to freeze when he was about to lunge for me when I had an open guard in the air, and it seemed as if he wasn’t attacking me or properly defending from my strikes during the final bit of the fight. Those were most definitely issues with the Cardinal System itself, probably the System malfunctioning from having to run two worlds at once. Wait… Malfunctioning…_

“Heathcliff is still alive… and the System he had implemented in this place is decaying from overuse,” Kirito concluded when he finally regained his bearings and stood up again in front of Ozpin.

“Kirito, what do you mean?” Asuna, Agil, and Klein asked at the same time. Kirito then got them together out of earshot from Ozpin.

“What I mean is, the workload being put on the Cardinal System itself, which is running SAO in its entirety, is straining under pressure due to having to dynamically simulate every facet and aspect of both Aincrad and Remnant at the same time,” Kirito whispered to the three surrounding him. “Kayaba Akihiko didn’t expect this, so when the system’s first freeze-up occurred during my fight with him, he used some sort of system command to teleport himself elsewhere so that he could fix the problem himself, out of sight. That’s why he disappeared, and why despite that we weren’t able to log out anyways, and why we had to progress to the next floor, which ended up being an entirely different world.”

“I see… he thought that the Cardinal System itself collapsing was more concerning to him than a score to settle with you.” Agil concluded in a whisper.

“That’s what I thought,” Kirito replied. “The problem that I’m pondering over now is… what the hell does this new world have to offer that causes such strain on the system in the first place?”

“Maybe it has to do with new systems being introduced to us that we haven’t seen before in Aincrad?” Asuna suggested.

“What kind of systems have that much complexion that they would slow Cardinal down?” Kirito inquired. “That’s the problem. If they are causing this much strain on the Cardinal System, there might be more things to worry about than the fact that we can’t go back to Aincrad, or the fact that we’re a fairy tale here on Remnant, or that the people on Remnant know that it was a game all along.”

“I have a funny feeling there are bigger pawns on this chessboard than the four of us… and that we’re in checkmate somehow despite just being put on said board,” Kirito said, pondering the various possibilities of what could be lying in store for the Assault Team in this world.

“That reminds me…” Kirito said, as he turned around, walked over to Ozpin’s desk and leaned over to him. “Who exactly is _Salem_?”

* * *

**_Fragment of the Gods’ Creation: Remnant - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Beacon Academy: Team RWBY’s Dormitories - November 7th, 2024 11:25 PM_ **

“Mooouuuu… I wonder who exactly those people were…” Ruby said as she laid on her bed, rolled over facing the rest of her team.

“They were probably some troublesome group of bandits trying to slither their way into Beacon. Nothing Ozpin and Goodwitch can’t handle,” Weiss scoffed. The mere thought of that group was a pesterence to her.

“Do they seem like a group of bandits?” Yang asked Weiss. “I mean, bandits wouldn’t bother wearing metal armor like that anyways, nor did they seem as dumb as your usual bandits.”

“They seemed to be able to coordinate themselves effectively, and the way the tips of their weapons glowed makes me think that they’re more than just ‘rascals’,” Blake commented.

“Pfft. I would know, my mom is _Raven Branwen_ ,” Yang laughed. “The Assault Team is SEVERAL leagues above the Branwen tribe, _despite_ my mom leading them.”

“I wonder who that black-colored boy was…” Ruby daydreamed. “He seemed to have the same colored eyes that I do…”

“Does that make any difference Ruby?” Weiss asked nonplussed. “Many different people have the same type of eye color, it shouldn’t be _that_ big of a deal.”

“Of course it has to! Why else would Ozpin comment and talk about my eyes if that wasn’t the case?”

“Silver Eyes…” Blake said. “They were said to belong to a group of warriors who could glare at Grimm and cause them to disintegrate. I read about it in one of my books.”

“So Blackie is a badass unstoppable warrior from the same bloodline as my sis? Damn, now it seems like incest.” Yang laughed.

“He’s probably not,” Blake corrected Yang. “Silver Eyes could belong to any family tree or genetic pool. Even a Faunus could possess Silver Eyes.”

“Soooo… he’s fair game?”

“Yaaaaaaaaang… quit being so horny!”

“Get used to it, sis. I could talk about boys worse than him. Besides, he’s looking to be the best of the best in my books!” Yang joked as she gave a thumbs up.

“How crude,” Weiss mumbled to herself, but not quiet enough to go out of earshot for Yang, who chuckled at the remark.

“Hmm, I wonder Yang…” Ruby said aloud.

“Wonder what?”

“Remember that one fairy tale you read to me when I was younger?”

“The Girl in the Tower?”

“Nonono, blegh, gross, different one.”

“The Story of the Seasons?”

“Nono, the one set in the sky.”

“OH, The Tale of The Floating Prison Castle.”

“That’s it. What if that boy was the Black Swordsman?”

Everyone paused for approximately 30 seconds, before literally everyone burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Even Blake was laughing her ass off at the notion that Aincrad could be real.

“Do you really think those dolts could be from that stupid joke of a fantasy?” Weiss said, choking on laughter. “Even if he was as skilled as he demonstrated there’s no way he could possibly be the Bla-”

 _“Good Evening Students and Faculty.”_ The intercom suddenly blared, startling Team RWBY out of their fit of laughter. “ _Professor Ozpin speaking. Before we close down our facilities for the night and initiate curfew for the dormitories, I just wanted to make an announcement about upcoming events in the near future. Starting tomorrow, we’re going to begin Vytal Festival skirmishes broadcasted worldwide on the CCT. It is expected that all Teams and their Team Leaders will be prepared for the day when they get picked for said skirmishes. Another thing I’d like to announce is that 1v1 Skirmishes are cancelled outright. Why is this? This is because there is going to be another fight going on in place of the 1v1 Skirmishes, albeit still broadcasted live across the network. Let me bring someone else to the microphone to explain exactly what fight will be replacing the 1v1s.”_ Ozpin then got off of the intercom and passed it to another person. 

“What’s going to happen?! I wanted to polish my skills up for that 1v1…” Weiss sulked.

“Don’t worry, Ice Queen. Hopefully something else better is shown in front of us to compensate…” Yang soothed Weiss.

“What exactly would they have in mind?” Blake asked.

“Hopefully something cool-” Ruby tried saying before the intercom cut her off again.

“ _Greetings Beacon Academy,”_ A young voice spoke. It sounded waaaaay too familiar to the four girls as they suddenly had puzzled looks on their faces.

“No way…” Blake said.

“WHAT?!” Weiss then screamed.

“ _I’m sure none of you know who I am. Or who I am YET. Besides one freshman team in particular.”_ He said, obviously ratting out the 4 girls on the intercom. “ _I just came to announce that Professor Ozpin will be partaking in a 1v1 duel with another combatant, tomorrow as the finishing event for the day. It will still be tournament rules like it always has been for these preliminary skirmishes that you people have been doing for whatever reason I could never figure out. Anyways, be prepared to see Professor Ozpin in action. Because he’ll be put to work by ME!”_

“ _Be prepared tomorrow, Beacon Academy. For Kirito the Black Swordsman steps into the fray!”_

All of the girls in Team RWBY besides Ruby dropped dead at that announcement.

“I KNEW I WAS RIGHT!” Ruby cheered, pumping her fist into the air. “WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT IT BEING A STUPID FANTASY?” Ruby then said before putting a finger along the side of her mouth and sticking her tongue out at the other members of Team RWBY, who have been put in a nebulous state of denial, lamentation, and shut-down.

“ _Hope is not lost in this bleak world on the edge of collapse. My skills showcase tomorrow shall prove to all of Remnant that those who dare to threaten our integrity shall be snuffed out by our might. I hope to see everyone then at the Arena. Also if I lose I have to attend Beacon as well. Heh heh. Welp, I spent all the time I need on this thing, get a good rest for tomorrow!”_ The intercom cut out suddenly.

“You… can’t… be… serious…” Weiss said, spaced out by the fact that she got downplayed by RUBY of all the dunces.

“What…” Blake trailed off.

“I’ve… been… STANDING NEXT TO THE BLACK SWORDSMAN THIS ENTIRE TIME?!” Yang suddenly snapped out of her daze, suddenly blushing harder than Ruby ever did when being teased by her older sister. Ruby suddenly laughed at this.

“Oh, is my older sister blushing for a boy?” Ruby teased Yang.

“SHUT UP!” Yang yelled, throwing her pillow at Ruby, who laughed her ass off.

“Maybe there’s hope for the Faunus now…” Blake daydreamed to herself, remembering the times when the Black Swordsman and his friends helped out the Dark Elves on Floors 2-10.

“My matches have been cancelled for some stupid boy?” Weiss suddenly fumed. Then she stopped, and suddenly started to laugh. “Hah, whatever’s coming his way during that match, I’m going to absolutely savor. That boy should know better than to be such a nuisance. I’m going to enjoy Ozpin beating him into the ground,” She then laughed maniacally again. Meanwhile, the others sweatdropped at Weiss’ episode of mania.

“He’s really gotten to her hasn’t he…” Yang asked Ruby.

“Yep. We’ve officially lost her,” Ruby and Blake suddenly announced.

“Anyways… I wonder where he’s going to be staying for the night…”

* * *

**_Fragment of the Gods’ Creation: Remnant - Kingdom of Vale_ **

**_Beacon Academy: Main Courtyard - November 7th, 2024 11:35 PM_ **

_If this is God’s punishment towards me, then I swear I’m converting to Christianity as soon as I get out of SAO. I’m in dire need of penance right now._

This was Kirito’s first thought when he went out of that office. That damned office of Ozpin.

“That bastard…” Kirito grumbled.

“This certainly complicates things,” Agil said out loud.

“Understatement of the century…” Kirito replied.

“Why does he keep such a stupidly huge secret like that, man… come on,” Klein complained out loud.

“The better question is, how does he keep a secret like ‘his rival is unkillable’?” Asuna said somberly.

“I don’t know, and the answer would probably either be he’s a big genius or every NPC in this world is stupid. Or maybe this is Kayaba’s doing again.”

“I’mma go with the latter, Kiri-no-ji,” Klein said.

“Hmph, figured as much,” Kirito replied.

“Here they come,” Agil said, motioning towards the front gate of the school grounds, where the Assault Team is coming through, quickly surrounding the four in the courtyard, asking them a variety of questions of different types.

“Calm down, everyone!” Kirito shouted after a while.

“Everyone… uhm… how do I say this…?” Kirito suddenly caught his own words. “Uhmm… The people of Remnant already know about us…?”

People gave Kirito a puzzled look, as he scratched his head trying to formulate a follow up to what he just said.

“What I mean is that, for whatever reason, Aincrad exists in Remnant itself as some sort of fairy tale, despite the fight with Heathcliff being altered from what really happened, and despite both worlds being maintained by the Cardinal System at the same time in SAO.”

“Not only that, but apparently you, me, and everyone else standing here, as well as the other 100,000 inhabitants of Aincrad are an immortalized legend among the people of Remnant, though the extent of this according to Ozpin is limited to the Kingdom we’re in right now, the Kingdom of Vale, and a futuristic, floating utopian city to the north named the Kingdom of Atlas. Apparently Ozpin told me that Atlas was floating thanks to inspiration from Aincrad, whatever that means.”

“We also know that there are various human boss enemies scattered around Remnant as well, alongside the usual Boss monsters, which alongside the Mobs in this world are labeled as Grimm, and the normal Boss monsters usually reside in specially labeled Grimm Dungeons,” Kirito explained to the group. “You guys already know how weak the fodder monsters are, as well as how powerful the Boss monsters are, so I don’t need to go over any additional shit about that, besides the possibility of Ancient Grimm superbosses hidden in various areas around the world, which presumably have an extremely high payout for clearing, possibly even more so than the normal Floor Bosses we’ve been used to up until now.”

This caused a couple of people within the group to murmur in awe at the thought of a superboss. 

“We also have Huntsman Quests. This feature activated for us as soon as Ozpin messaged the other members of his clandestine group about our presence here at Beacon. From what I can see, there are various different Quest vendors scattered across Remnant who work as the self-proclaimed Huntsmen of Remnant.” Kirito said to the crowd. “There are various vendors here in Remnant that you can lend your aid to so that you can farm for experience points, Col, and possible clues about the locations of the Boss enemies scattered around Remnant.”

“Apparently some Huntsmen also wield hybrid weapons which combine aspects of two or more weapon types at the same time. You can probably use multiple types of Sword Skills from multiple weapon types with hybrid weapons, as opposed to normal weapons, though the trade-off is that you have to actually commit to a hybrid weapon in order to master it, unlike normal weapons, which are interchangeable,” Kirito said. “In addition to that, I’ve also found information on another faction that’s lurking in the shadows and opposes Ozpin’s group, known as Salem’s Faction,” Kirito said, which got some people talking. Probably discussing what this “Salem” is. “This ties in with what I said earlier about us being roped into some Quest Campaign without doing anything. Basically if Ozpin lays an eye on you, you’re essentially either his puppet or his enemy. The former of the two is what became of us. We survived that Boss Battle narrowly, but thanks to the help of Team RWBY, we’ve accidentally put ourselves in the spotlight of this world. What I believe is going to happen is that various new enemies will spawn around some of you guys when you're out in the fields exploring, if for whatever reason Salem believes that you’ve been left ‘unchecked’. Soldiers, normal bandits, various goons, and sometimes even some of Salem’s own underlings will spawn and attempt to kill us. Use whatever methods are at your disposal to take care of the bastards, or else you risk being killed by them.” People were still confused by what Kirito said, which caused him to sigh.

“Right, forgot to tell you guys about her. If Kayaba Akihiko didn’t actually participate in the Assault Team and stood on the sidelines while we struggled our way through the 75 Floors we had to climb before reaching Remnant, then Salem would be the final boss of SAO.” Kirito explains, which gets murmurs from the Assault Team. “Basically, Salem ‘controls’ the Grimm according to Ozpin, and has associates in all corners of the world, ready to strike with fangs of venom whenever a weak spot shows itself somewhere. She’s described by him as vicious, merciless, cold, and a personification of darkness itself. She is ‘The Dark Queen of Remnant’ in Ozpin’s own terms,” Kirito finished explaining her to the group. “But… obviously knowing what we know thanks to Floor 75, Salem would’ve been just a cover for Kayaba Akihiko to hide behind if he had actually gotten away after we got to Remnant and teleported to his corner of nowhere, and it seems he’s still using her as a cover. Another thing is that by dictation of the Cardinal System itself, Salem doesn’t actually ‘control’ the Grimm like she would want us to believe. Rather, she _influences_ the Grimm to act in-line with her results in mind. This degree of control has somehow fooled Ozpin into believing that she in fact has full control over the Grimm, which is a false claim,” Kirito says. “The reason why ‘Salem Incursions’ exist is because Kayaba Akihiko wanted Salem and Ozpin’s figurative game of chess to play a key role in terms of us clearing SAO itself, which is why we were automatically dragged into this Quest Campaign through Ozpin’s Group when we entered Remnant through Floor 75 and survived the Boss encounter.”

“Where is Salem?” One person asked.

“If Ozpin knows that there’s this looming threat that’s hovering over Remnant then why isn’t he acting out?” Another person asked.

“How will we be able to kill her?” A third person asked.

“Currently, we don’t know where Salem is. She could be literally anywhere on Remnant. If she hasn’t been caught at this point, then all we can assume is that she is some sort of genius in manipulating the world in the way she has at this point,” Kirito said. “The technical reason why Ozpin chooses not to go public about Salem’s existence is because Kayaba Akihiko programmed him to act clandestine in that manner. The official reason why is because of the fact that it would spread fear across Remnant, and give Salem what she wants the most out of humanity, which is distorting hope into fear and despair.” 

Kirito then took a deep breath, bracing himself for the backlash he would receive with his next words. 

“The more troubling thing about Salem, however… is the fact that she’s technically classified as an Immortal Object by the Cardinal System.”

 **_“WHAT!?”_ ** Every member of the Assault Team screamed.

“It got me the first time I heard that. Apparently no-one besides Ozpin knew that Salem couldn’t be killed in conventional manners, or by conventional means. I don’t even think that Salem’s underlings or her general faction knows about her Object Status either. Ozpin hid that fact completely from every single person within his Inner Circle, even his most trustworthy friends. WE are the first ones to hear about this. The reason why he gave that information to _me_ over any of his experienced warriors is beyond me. The only thing I could probably think of being the reason is the fact that he considers me to be The Black Swordsman of Remnant legend.”

“H-H-How do we stand a chance?” One person cried.

“Oh God! We’re done for! It’s over!” Another person despaired.

“We were fucked from the start,” A third person said.

“How are we gonna clear SAO now?!” A fourth person screamed.

Eventually the entire Assault Team agonized the possibilities that were presented towards them. The fact that Salem had an Immortal Object Status when NPCs, let alone BOSS enemies were never designated that Object Status in the first place was enough to turn everyone’s bursting energy into a black hole of agony.

“Just because Salem herself can’t be killed doesn’t mean we can’t hurt her in other ways,” Kirito spoke up again, silencing the complaining and cries of the Assault Team almost immediately.

“I mentioned Salem’s Faction earlier, and I said that some of her underlings might try to assault some of you. Use that chance you have to kill them and get in her skin. Do the Huntsmen Quests around town to get clues toward human Bosses that work under Salem. If we kill them, she’ll start to lose her human grip on the world. That is the desirable outcome. If we can’t fight our way through Salem, then we’ll have to circumvent her outright, and go straight for Kayaba Akihiko.” 

This apparently caused a couple of people to give off genuine smiles of relief. 

“Don’t despair _just_ because one of the bosses we’re ‘forced’ to kill can’t actually die. If we can’t kill her, then we’ll just ignore her and focus on the real enemy so that we can clear SAO.”

“That’s right… we have to think outside the box now…” One person said.

“We might still have a chance to clear the game…” Another commented.

“Hope isn’t lost! We can still do this!” A third person cheered.

“Yes,” Kirito encouraged. “We can still clear SAO, everyone! We can still save the people trapped in Aincrad!”

“ **_YEAH!”_ **

“There’s going to be a fight between me and Ozpin tomorrow in front of the school populace. This fight is going to be broadcasted all over the world, allowing others to know about our presence,” Kirito announced. “We can’t just do things behind the scenes and behind other people’s backs. If we want to clear SAO, we have to show the people of Remnant that we are capable of fighting and cutting them a path for the future!”

**_“YEAAAAAAAH!”_ **

“Let’s show Remnant what the SAO Survivors can do! Starting tomorrow!”

**_“ALRIGHT! WOOOO!”_ **

With that declaration, Kirito had created a solid mindset within the minds of all of the Assault Team to fight to give the people hope, and to hopefully strengthen their own numbers in the process. They were going to salvage the situation they were put in to the best of their abilities, giving it their all at every step of the journey forward from then on. Kirito was certain of this. He had a feeling they _could_ still find a way to clear the game despite the obstacles in front of them at the moment. The only thing to get out of the way now was where to start in their operation.

_Ah well… I guess we could figure that out tomorrow after the duel._

“I was able to get lodging for us in the dormitories with the other students,” Kirito told the Assault Team. “Which should be… about several hundred meters to the west. We should hunker down over there for the night, and after my duel we can have a meeting about what to do next.”

As soon as he said that the Assault Team had picked up their stuff and started to move to that specific location to settle down for the night, seeing as their day was long enough as it was at that moment.

“That was quite the turnaround, Kirito-kun,” Asuna smiled.

“I just said what was necessary to comfort them.” Kirito deadpanned.

“Yeah, if you could call _that_ necessary then sure,” Klein said as they started walking.

Kirito meanwhile pulled down his game menu with his left index and middle finger, bringing up the local map of the area surrounding them. He used this as he was walking to navigate the surprisingly very cramped environment that had surrounded the four of them while they made their way towards the dormitories.

“How did they manage to fit an entire city into a school…” Klein awed at the construction of the school complex surrounding the four of them.

“That bastard certainly _is_ a wizard,” Kirito mumbled.

When they did eventually reach the dormitories, they were greeted by a luxury apartment complex rather than what they actually expected, which was a normal dorm hall like the ones you’d see in a top tier college like Harvard, Yale, or MIT. A quick look at this was the final nail in the coffin that Beacon Academy _was not_ like any of those 3 schools or others in America. This school was something else entirely.

“What the hell?” Klein exclaims as he opens the front door to the apartment complex, which is modern in most of the sense of the word.

“Kayaba created the assets for these as well as the assets in Aincrad in the amount of time it took to develop SAO?” Kirito asked himself as he, Asuna, Klein, and Agil started walking around the halls.

“Seems like it,” Agil commented, inspecting every aspect of the walls as he walked. “Even if he has questionable morals, I can kind of respect the amount of work he actually put in to make an immersive experience such as this.”

“Yeah, seems like he either had too much time on his hands or had worked around the clock to get this detailing down,” Asuna said as she did the same thing as she walked.

“Uhh, guys, we can admire the details at a different time,” Klein said, nervously laughing as they inspected the walls while walking. They simply just ignored him as they continued on their merry way down the hallway towards where they were supposed to be lodging at.

“I wonder where the others had set up in this place…” Klein thought to himself as they made their way down the hallway.

“Yo, Leader! We got a place over here set up!” Some people yelled. The four of them turned around to find out that it was Klein’s guild talking to them, Fuurinkazan.

“Nice. Well, I’ll see you guys in the morning then,” Klein motioned his hands as he walked towards the room that Fuurinkazan had set themselves up in.

“W-wait, Klein…” Kirito tried calling out, slumping his arms forward in defeat as the door to Klein’s room closed with an audible click. “Come on, man…”

“Looking for your dorms?” A seductive female voice asked the three remaining people, as they turned around to find another group of three people standing in the hall. A tall, rather attractive woman with ashen-black hair styled to her left side of her face, and deadly golden eyes was standing in the center, while a dark-skinned green haired girl with red eyes about Asuna’s height flanked her left and a tall, silver haired boy with black and silver clothing flanked her right. They had an ominous vibe to them that made Kirito feel uneasy.

“Uhm… yeah, we were just confused about where to go,” Kirito said nervously as his heartbeat increased.

_The hell is wrong with them? It’s as if Hypersense wants to activate within their presence, yet it can’t detect any malice from those guys. So weird…_

“You okay, Blackie? Going a little pale there,” The silver guy quipped.

“MERC!” The dark-skinned girl whisper-shouted.

“Sorry, no offense intended,” The guy said, waving off his partner with his left hand.

“None taken,” Kirito ended up sighing.

“It would be helpful to see where the hell we’re supposed to go though…”

“You’re with that group of soldiers that barged into the dorm rooms in the middle of the night, right?” The tall girl asked Kirito.

“How did you figure that?”

“Your strangely outdated attire was one way I was able to figure it out,” She replied, with a seductive smirk creeping onto her face as she took note of his black trenchcoat, which still had that cog chestplate strapped onto it. Kirito knew something was wrong with this girl as soon as they had met eye contact, and he’d rather not stick around to find out.

_This is bad, she’s absolutely bad news. I don’t know why though._

“The others went down the hallway behind us, to the left,” She then stated, pointing behind herself for them to see. “You’ll eventually run into them if you keep walking for a bit.”

“Right, thanks,” Kirito said hurriedly as he motioned his two other friends to follow him.

“Let me know next time you need directions,” The girl flashed a smile at him.

“I probably won’t, but thanks,” Kirito replied courteously as he, Asuna, and Agil hurried off into the apartment complex, finding the other members of the Assault Team.

“So that’s the bastard that’s caught your eye,” the boy remarked as soon as Kirito and his crew were out of earshot.

“Yes, he is. He seems so normal for someone with such extraordinary talents,” the tall girl remarked.

“He just seems like a blundering fool to me,” the dark-skinned girl commented bluntly.

“Hmph, don’t be so quick to judge such timely things. Besides, he might have something that’ll catch _your_ eye. We’ll catch him in time. When we do, that’s when the fun begins.”

Meanwhile, Kirito, Asuna, and Agil had finally found lodging alongside other members of the Assault Team as they settled into their own rooms for the night. Apparently the doors to their dorms opened with the usage of their Scrolls, rather than through normal keycards or something of the like.

“You all set for the night?” Kirito asked Asuna and Agil as they were at the doors of their own rooms.

“I should be fine,” Asuna smiled at Kirito.

“I can manage for now,” Agil replied to Kirito.

“Alright, good night.” Kirito said. “Let’s meet up at around 8 in the morning, alright?”

“Sure,” Both of them replied, as they entered their own rooms for the night.

Kirito’s own room was pretty spacious for something accommodating a single person. There was a bed in the middle, a desk for studying and/or using a computer (which Kirito probably wouldn’t find a use for seeing as Kayaba couldn’t _possibly_ emulate the Internet as a new system, despite mentions of the “CCT” being thrown about by various people to the left of the bed, a kitchen with a stove, microwave, refrigerator/freezer combo, and a coffee machine, as well as a bathroom and closet for personal usage. It was pretty simple but it was quite efficient, considering Kirito didn’t plan for him and the Assault Team to stay in this school for long.

“Jeez, a day is never simple within SAO, is it?” Kirito complained out loud as he swiftly pulled up his game menu and stripped into sleepwear using his equipment screen. He then went over to the nightstand and used his Scroll to set an alarm for 8 AM in the morning, and placed it on the nightstand, which caused a holographic screen to pop up, telling the current time to him. Kirito never usually slept that often in SAO, but he was going to get all the sleep he could get today seeing how long it actually was in comparison to his other days within the game. He laid down on the surprisingly comfy bed as the lights in the room dimmed, besides the nightlight on the nightstand next to his bed.

“So much stuff to take in… So many more layers to the game are present than I realized…” He mumbled to himself as he took a comfortable position in his bed, turning off the light on the nightstand in the process.

The last thing he heard in his head as he drifted off into sleep were the following words:

**_Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest._ **

Ending Theme: Akatsuki no Requiem (Linked Horizon) [<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o05UK9lXtC0>]


End file.
